Boehner doesn’t rule out shutdown as a way to defund Obamacare

By Russ Britt

A tweet from ABC News Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny that should be passed on. He’s quoting House Speaker John Boehner on whether Republicans are willing to shut down the government in an effort to defund the health-care overhaul.

But the effort has left other Republicans uncomfortable, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham. Noting that a shutdown would include stoppage of Social Security checks, Graham is quoted in Politico Wednesday as saying “I don’t think linking the two is a very good idea.”

Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential election, Ariz. Sen. John McCain, also has called the defunding effort a “non-starter,” pointing out that those who are forwarding the idea now were not around when the government was shut down in late 1995 and 1996.

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